A true king - Psalm 2

Let me tell you some awe inspiring facts about a particular country.
Last year, this country had a defence budget of $379 billion after a recent
rise of 14 per cent, the biggest rise in 20 years. This defence budget is larger
than the combined total of the next nine biggest defence spenders. It is responsible
for about 40 per cent of the world's military spending.

This
country has 247,000 troops and civilians posted overseas, with a presence in
more than 130 countries, covering every time zone. It has a Department of
Defence which employs 1.4 million people on active duty. It has more employees
than ExxonMobil, Ford, General Motors and GE combined. Its Department of Defence
owns 40,000 properties, covering 18 million acres of land and buys enough fuel
every day to drive a car around the world 13,000 times.

This
country operates a fleet of more than 15,000 aircraft, including 20 stealth
bombers in service. The navy operates more than 1,000 ocean going vessels.
Its military headquarters employs 23,000 workers and incorporates over 17 miles
of corridors.

This country spends an average of
$28,000 on research and development for each member of its armed forces compared
to the European average which is a meagre $7,000. $25 billion a year goes
for the operation and maintenance of its nuclear arsenal.

If
you haven't guessed already, the country I'm talking about is the United
States of America.

These are impressive statistics aren't
they? and these statistics make the U. S. A. a very powerful world ruler.
Now I don't know about you, but I find that getting my head around this
kind of power, is very difficult. I struggle to fully comprehend $1 million
dollars let alone $379 billion.

I struggle to comprehend the damage
that one atomic bomb is capable of, let alone the nuclear arsenal that the
U. S. has at its disposal.

I think that it's fair to
say that the might and power behind this world ruler is difficult for us normal
people to fully grasp. But as awesome as this world power is, I want to tell
you about a king who is even more powerful and this Psalm, Psalm 2 is a reminder
to us that although the kings of the earth are indeed impressive, compared
to God's chosen king they are nothing.

So let's
take a look at this mighty king.

1. The Power of the
King

Well the first thing we need to understand is
that this king is God's king and we can see that from the title that appears
at the end of verse 2, the king is given the title The Anointed One.
Now that's a bit of a strange title isn't it?

But
actually it's a title that is used a lot all through the Bible and we still
hear it a lot today, but we hear it in a different language. You see the Greek
word Christos which is pronounced Christ in English, simply means
Annointed One and so does the Hebrew word Messiah. Now the anointed
one is simply God's chosen King. A king chosen by God, anointed by God's
priests to lead God's people. And all through the Old Testament we see
many Christs, or Messiahs or, anointed ones and that is what this Psalm is
speaking about, an anointed one, God's King. Look down at verse 6 God says
"I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill."

So
this King is installed by God and look at what God has said to him in verses
7 -8:

"You are my Son, today I have become your Father.
Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth
your possession!"

Now this king has some
phenomenal God given power isn't he? Look God calls him his son, he's
known as the Son of God! But not only this, God will hand over the whole world
to him, the ends of the earth will belong to this king, he will rule over everything!!
All of creation, It's big stuff. That's serious power. You definitely
don't want to get on the wrong side of this king.

But
look at the way in which the nations respond to God and his king, look down
at verses 1 - 3:

"Why do the nations conspire and the
peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers
gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. "Let us
break their chains", they say, "and throw off their fetters.""

It's
interesting isn't it? It seems that world does not want to submit to this
king. They plot against him, they take a stand against him. They don't
want to live under his authority. "Let's break their chains"
they say.

"We don't want to be under these people, let's
rebel, let's get out. We're the rulers here, we want to be in charge,
we don't want any God and we don't want God's king sitting over
us and ruling us."

So they conspire and plot and stand
against God and his King. But notice that in verse one, they plot in vain.
Why, well look at verse 9. Again God is speaking to his Anointed One and he
says:

"You will rule over them with an iron sceptre,
you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

God's
king will not tolerate their rebellion. You see in this Psalm, the nations
are guilty of a horrific crime. They are trying to de-throne God, they are
trying to take him out of the picture. Now why is this so serious? Well let's
consider the following questions.

Who made the
World? Who knows for a fact the way the world is meant to work, the way lives
are meant to be lived? Who knows how to make the universe run smoothly, who
knows the meaning of life, who knows how to bring total satisfaction to every
human being? Who has the right to rule over us ?God. But it seems that humanity
doesn't want this. They don't want God, they don't want his King,
they want to get rid of him. They want to blow him away like J. F. K.

But
they can't. And God's king will have justice. They will be punished
for their crime and the punishment is awful. Look at the imagery. The picture
is of this mighty King, this mighty Christ, the anointed one, with a great
big iron stick and he's smashing the nations to pieces. They thought they
were so powerful, but before the King of God, they are like weak bits of pottery
and he smashes them.

In December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl
Harbour.

In the movie that came out a few years
ago about Pearl harbour, there is an incredible scene where one of the Japanese
soldiers congratulates one of the superiors in charge of the Japanese victory.
It had been a great day for Japan, they had stood against that mighty rich
Country called America and they had won. But the Japanese superior turns to
his men and he says this "I'm afraid that all we have succeeded in
doing is to awaken a sleeping giant."

4 years later.
America dropped 2 Atomic bombs on Japanese soil. The atomic bomb named "Little
Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 bomber,
at 8:15 in the morning of August 6, 1945.

At least 100,
000 people died. 5 days later Japan surrendered. They simply could not stand
against that kind of power, the world had never seen or known of anything like
it.

Well that is the picture here.

Now
don't get me wrong I'm not out to justify or condemn the bombing of
Hiroshima that is not my aim right now, but what I want you to see is that
God's power is overwhelming. Nothing can or will, stand against him. The
rebels will be punished, there is no competition. The world cannot stand against
God. Not even the U. S. A. with its $379 billion a year military budget could
stand against the power of this King, that's what Psalm 2 is saying.

But
notice this Psalm is not all doom and gloom, because we haven't yet looked
at verses 10 - 12. You see not only is this King a powerful King, but he is
also a merciful King. So let's take a look at the....

2.
The Mercy of the King

Fortunately, verse 9 does not
have to be the end, there is a "therefore" look down at verses 10
- 12.

"Therefore, you kings, be wise, be
warned you rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath
can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him."

It
seems that there two choices. Either you can be a rebel and be smashed to pieces,
or you can submit to God and his King and receive blessing. You see really
this psalm is a warning to those who stand against God. They are heading towards
a terrible judgement, but it doesn't have to be that way. If they serve
the Lord, if they take refuge in the Son, in the Christ, in the Anointed One,
then there is mercy and blessing.

Now that's all very
well, but when we get to the end of the Old Testament, we're left with
a bit of a problem. You see this Christ spoken about in Psalm 2 never showed
up. Oh there were plenty of Christs but never one like this.

Some
of them were indeed powerful and feared by their enemies, but none ruled the
whole earth and at the end of the Old Testament, the enemies of God's people
overcome and the Christ loses.

So the question we're
left asking is this: Who is this Christ that has been written about here? Who
are we supposed to take refuge in, is the Old Testament just plain wrong?

Well
let's turn to this question now. Let's look at the identity of the
King.

3. The Identity of the King

Well
when we turn to the New Testament we quickly see that if we finish our studies
on God's King in the Old Testament then we will not have the full picture.
We find that in the book of Acts the identity of this king is spelt out clearly,
so please turn with me to Acts chapter 4: 23 - 27 and you can find this on
page ..... of the read Bibles. It says:

"On their release, Peter
and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests
and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices
together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord" they said "you made
the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the
Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "Why
do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take
their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his
Anointed One." Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant
Jesus, whom you anointed."

Now did you notice anything
familiar in verses 25 and 26? Psalm 2 is actually quoted here in this passage
and verse 27 identifies the anointed one for us, look down at it:

"Indeed
Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel
in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed."

You
see the Psalm is being applied to Jesus, he is the Anointed One, he is God's
King, he is the Christ, that's why he's called Jesus Christ, it's
not just some rare first century surname, it means he is the almighty king
of Psalm 2!

But verse 27 tells us something else that is
very interesting. You see part of Psalm 2 has already been fulfilled. According
to verse 27 the nations have already conspired against the Lord and his anointed,
they tried to break his chains by killing him. But there is more. You see if
we read on in the New Testament we would quickly see that the conspiring and
raging and plotting and turning away is far from finished. And actually every
single human is guilty of this. All people rebel against their maker and the
King he has raised up.

Now when we think about
this carefully we soon realise that this is in fact very bad news. Because
if the first part of Psalm 2 is already being fulfilled, then we know that
we are waiting for the second part of the Psalm to be fulfilled also. And this
second part of Psalm 2 is terrifying. Let me read to you from another passage
of the New Testament. I want to read to you Revelation Chapter 19: 11 - 21.
Just try to listen because the imagery spells out clearly what is coming. But
let me warn you it is very difficult to listen to.

"I
saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider
is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes
are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written
on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in
blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following
him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out
of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He
will rule them with an iron scepter."

He treads the winepress
of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has
this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

And I
saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds
flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God,
so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses
and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies
gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army.
But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed
the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who
had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them
were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were
killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse,
and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh."

Now
this is a side to Jesus that we don't see very much. When I first became
a Christian I used to come across a lot of Christian posters stuck up in various
church buildings. And on these posters there would be a lovely little kitten
playing with a butterfly, or there would be some little bunny rabbits cuddling
each other. And then across the top of the poster there would be written something
like "Jesus is your best friend", or "Jesus Loves you"
or something like that. And it was all very nice because it made Jesus like
a little fluffy kitten who is all nice and lovely.

But
this is a far cry from what we are reading about here in Psalm 2 and Revelation.
Now I don't know if you picked it up, but Psalm 2 was quoted in Revelation
19 as well it was in verse 15:

Out of his mouth comes a
sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them
with an iron sceptre."He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath
of God Almighty.

You see Revelation is showing us Jesus,
administrating the justice of God on those who have rebelled against him. And
whilst this picture is just and fair, it is also terrifying and because we
are all rebels, because we have all turned away from God and tried to rule
ourselves without him, we are all headed for this judgement. It's scary
stuff.

But do you remember that last section to Psalm 2?You
see those verses I read out don't have to be the end of the story. You
can take refuge in the Anointed One.

When Jesus Christ died
on the Cross more was taking place than merely the humiliating death of some
extreme religious teacher. As we have seen this was the death of God's
King God's ultimate King, God's Son. When Jesus died upon that Cross
he took upon himself all of our guilt, all of our rebellion, all that made
us stand guilty before God and deserving of punishment. And What's more
when Jesus died on that Cross he took the punishment that that all of that
guilt and rebellion deserved.

Now if we will only take refuge in what
he has done. If we will only trust in him to save us from the judgement we
deserve. If we will only stop serving ourselves and turn around and serve the
Lord, Then we will be blessed. Let me ask you have you done that, have you
taken refuge in the Son?

Now it can be tough I know that,
Following God in a world that has rejected him is not easy. And you may have
noticed in that Acts passage that it is set in the context of Peter and John
being released from the authorities where they were threatened. It wasn't
easy then and it's not now. But Psalm 2 should encourage us and spur us
on. If you are following the king then you are following the one who is the
true ruler. It's worth sticking with him, things wont go on this way forever.
There will come a time when the Anointed one will put an end to the rebellion.
You're going the right way, you're going God's way, following God's
king.

If this King is really the King the Bible claims he
is then what is there in life that is more important than following him?

And
what job is more important than telling others about him so that they too can
take refuge in him. You see on the day that he returns, it won't matter
how much time you spent in the office. It won't matter what promotions
you got or how wonderful your career was. It won't matter that you got
a first class degree. It wont matter that you have a nice house and car and
family, or that you've travelled all over the world. The only thing that
will matter is this have you taken refuge in the Lord? Have you given your
life over to him.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with
trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in
him.

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